Harry Stradling - Writer

Cinematographer.
Nationality:
American.
Born:
England (some sources give Nesen, Germany, or Newark, New Jersey), 1901.
Family:
Son: the photographer Harry Stradling, Jr.
Career:
In the United States by his teens; 1921—first film as
cinematographer,
Jim the Penman
; worked in France and England in the 1930s, then returned to Hollywood.
Awards:
Academy Awards for
The Picture of Dorian Gray
, 1945;
My Fair Lady
, 1964.
Died:
In February 1970.

Films as Cinematographer:

1921

Jim the Penman
(Blackwell);
The Devil's Garden
(Blackwell);
The Great Adventure
(Blackwell)

They Knew What They Wanted
(Kanin);
Suspicion
(Hitchcock);
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
(Hitchcock);
The Devil and Miss Jones
(Wood);
The Men in Her Life
(Ratoff);
Mr. and Mrs. North
(Sinclair);
The Corsican Brothers
(Ratoff)

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
(Minnelli);
The Owl and the Pussycat
(co)

Publications

By STRADLING: article—

On
Walk, Don't Run
in
American Cinematographer
(Hollywood), October 1957.

On STRADLING: articles—

Lightman, Herb A., in
American Cinematographer
(Hollywood), October 1951.

Lightman, Herb A., on
Parrish
in
American Cinematographer
(Hollywood), May 1961.

Lawton, Ralph, in
American Cinematographer
(Hollywood), July 1962.

Gavin, Arthur, on
My Fair Lady
in
American Cinematographer
(Hollywood), November 1964.

Film Comment
(New York), Summer 1972.

Focus on Film
(London), no. 13, 1973.

* * *

The veteran cinematographer Harry Stradling was one of the great camera
talents in the history of Hollywood. He worked in every film genre and for
many good and bad directors. His peers recognized his abilities and
nominated him for 13 Oscars. His career represents a scope and quality
matched by few cameramen.

Like many of his contemporaries who entered the American film industry
during the 1920s, Stradling spent more than a decade learning his craft
filming minor works. His uncle, Walter Stradling, who for many years was
Mary Pickford's cameraman, got him his initial job. (His son, Harry
Stradling, Jr., continues the family tradition behind the camera.) During
his on-the-job training Stradling spent the 1920s on unimportant films,
even working on shorts for the minor studio Pathé. At this point
his career took an uncommon turn. Stradling journeyed to Europe to
establish his reputation. Thus he worked on a fine 1930s French film,
Carnival in Flanders
. In this film Stradling and director Jacques Fedyer successfully captured
the image of Flemish paintings, and offered up a distinctive, highly
successful art film of its day.

For this effort Alexander Korda hired Stradling to photograph the fine
British film
Knight without Armour
, starring Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat. Besides the low-key
impressionistic backgrounds representing Moscow, the film placed Stradling
in a line of famous cameramen who boosted the career of Dietrich. This led
to a series of major assignments in the United Kingdom (
Pygmalion
,
The Citadel
, and
Jamaica Inn
). From these successes Stradling was able to make his way back to
Hollywood to work with Hitchcock on
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
and
Suspicion
. He soon moved to the top rung of Hollywood cinematographers.

Possibly because of his experience in Europe, Stradling was willing to
experiment. This was extremely rare in conservative Hollywood of the
1940s. A famous film for its special effects was
The Corsican Brothers
, in which Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., played twin brothers. Critics praised
the scenes in which the two brothers appeared as amazingly real.

Like most ace cinematographers of his day, Stradling never stuck to one
genre, but he did build up a reputation for a style which emphasized
glamour and Technicolor. For example, Stradling was the man behind the
camera for such MGM musicals as
Till the Clouds Roll By
and
The Barkleys of Broadway
. Later he would work on
Guys and Dolls
,
Auntie Mame
, and
Gypsy
. All these films earned him nominations for Academy Awards.

The final flare of Harry Stradling's long, distinguished career
came with
Funny Girl
. Barbra Streisand thanked "dear Harry Stradling" in her
acceptance speech for her Oscar. They later worked together on
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
and
Hello, Dolly!
, and he died while working on yet another Streisand vehicle,
The Owl and the Pussycat
. Ironically he passed away the very day after he had been nominated for
his final Academy Award, for
Hello, Dolly!

—Douglas Gomery

User Contributions:

You didn't mention his father filmed the First Adventure Movie called the GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY filmed in the Wilds of New Jersey the Jets Stadium in the Medow lands. The story told by his daughters god mother my mother who was god daughter to his mother in law sister of my grandfather. That would make him working for Thomas Edison.

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